Heat Rising
by Radar Raider
Summary: Ten years of rumbling and tumbling as Persona users have gotten to Minato and Hamuko. They're experienced, yes. And yet, trouble still pursues them with a hunger to challenge their powers. Can they divert their fates and change the world's destiny? [Rewrite of Persona 3: Never To Leave]
1. Attempted Parkour

My name's Minato.

I like listening to music, hanging out with my little sister and beating the crap out of Shadows. You don't know what Shadows are? Good! You shouldn't know what they are. You don't _want_ to know what they are.

I'm going to my hometown with my sis.

And I was bored.

I lazily spent my time looking out the train doors, seeing the blurry streaks of light whiz by as the train sped to the station that I was supposed to get off at. Man, it's been a while since I've been back here. I can't even remember the last time that I saw this place. I can literally smell the nostalgia in the air now.

Speaking of nostalgia, I _still_ remember the time that my life was literally torn to pieces. What an awesome memory. I rolled my eyes. As if.

I almost got myself skewered on the end of a long pointy sword that night. My sister included! Grah, what the hell!? I facepalmed and went back to watching as the surroundings mixed an ungodly combination of blue and grey-white while the train pulled into the station. Speaking of an ungodly combination…

This music sucks. I pressed the pause button twice in succession, hearing another song blare unhindered into my ears. "You maaake me happy when I was happy to stop wi-"

I got punched on the shoulder by my lil' sis, and I probably would've been knocked over if not for my Null Physical Persona on right now. "Minato, you're really loud when you sing, you know that?" she sighed, rolling her eyes.

"I know," I shrugged. "What makes you think I care again?"

"Geez, you can be so mean, you know that?" Hamuko sighed.

"Says the girl who punches me every other few minutes," I mumbled.

"What did you say?" Her voice began to rise in volume, and I could tell she was getting plenty riled up by my pokes at her.

"Violence. Loving. Brat." I grinned at the dismayed expression on Hamuko's face before patting her on the head, effectively ruining her hair.

"Goddammit Minato!" she growled, quickly slapping my hand away and then attempting to style her hair back to normal.

"You know you love me," I smirked as I waltzed right out of the opening doors.

"Ugh… fuck you Minato, just fuck you, seriously," Hamuko snarled.

I merely chuckled at her rage and coolly strolled my way to the ticket gates. "Better hurry up or the machines are gonna turn off and we'll have to do something illegal," I beckoned the still fuming Hamuko.

"Then let's DO something illegal!" Hamuko fist pumped. Ah, I knew she couldn't resist. Feeling like a badass and breaking the law was bad, but I could not deny the awesome thrills. It's like hard-core parkour!

"Alright then," I chuckled deviously, checking the train station clock. Should be turning off in a tiny bit… Three, two, six, thirteen, one hundred and four, zero!

Doom!

I felt that familiar atmosphere fall on top of me again. Man, somehow it just felt like it was good to be back in the most Awful Hour. Or AH as we called it between us two. Sometimes we called it AT instead. We were weird children okay?

Everything turned an almost sickly shade of green and blood was splashed around the walls. It was almost as if it was thrown around by a graffiti artist, and haphazard as fuck. "Iiiiiit's the AH. Let's get some parkour done here!"

"I'm up for some!" Hamuko grinned, completely forgetting her earlier rage and leaping over the ticket gates, rolling as she landed before standing up.

"Attagirl," I laughed before following after her. I almost got into a puddle of blood, but I missed it as I stood up and jumped over the puddle. I nearly didn't see it coming, but the smell kinda told me when I got closer. Ah, such was the smell of the AH. "Heh."

"Pssh, that was nothing," Hamuko turned her nose up and walked ahead, completely avoiding the puddles of blood that were spread out all over the tiled floor.

"My dear sister, you know that neither of us put any effort into that bit of parkour whatsoever," I smiled, walking slowly behind her.

"That barely even qualified as parkour," Hamuko rolled her eyes.

"I know right?" I chuckled. "Say, doesn't the moon look a whole lot bigger in the sky than back in Narita?"

"You're right!" she agreed, looking up at the yellowed moon that hung in the sky. "Trippy," Hamuko nodded to herself.

"Looks like we have some investigating to do Hamuko," I commented. "But we should focus on getting to the dorm first. We've wasted some time here."

"I know what you mean," she sighed. "Oookay then, Masuku-freaking-kaja!" Hamuko called.

"Thanks for wasting the SP," I smirked at her before running towards the direction of the dorm.

"Don't thank me bro," Hamuko said nonchalantly. She almost sounded annoyed. Heh, just what I was going for. I love riling Hamuko up. She's so easy to anger…

"Thank you Hamuko-chan," I grinned as I pushed off a wall that I had landed on into a puddle, splashing blood everywhere. Mostly in my sister's direction.

"Oh fuck you Minato," she cursed me once again. Haha, her cries and snarls of distress. She raised her hand and a silver shield blocked the spray of red liquid. "I thought I told you earlier that I didn't want to mess up my clothes!"

"Oh, I heard," I chuckled, promptly avoiding the Ragnarok that Hamuko sent at me.

We continued our ways toward the dorm, considerably unscathed, and Hamuko infuriated. "I swear Minato, you are insufferable!" she growled.

"Yes, I am, how could you ever survive with me around?" I said sarcastically, scraping off the semi-wet blood on my shoes on the stairs that led up to the entrance of our assigned building.

"J-Just shut up, and open the goddamned door," Hamuko muttered. I obliged her and opened the entrance to us, finding a lavished lobby before us. Well, I mean, from what little I could see inside. Things got pretty dark during the AH.

I could at least make out the shapes of a counter, sofa, chairs, table and a wall-like something in the darkness. The first thing that was on my mind was to find out whether anybody was awake. I doubted it. Oh right.

In the AH the other people around us just turned into coffins. I assumed that the people were asleep or unconscious inside them, but I never really wanted to look inside them. It seemed almost as if I was disturbing the dead. I mean, I would've been looking to the near lifeless body of a human in a _coffin_ for Thanatos' sake.

Anyways. "Hello," I heard.

"Oh, hey Pharos!" Hamuko said excitedly. "We haven't seen you in a while!"

"I know," Pharos smiled. Pharos was an old friend of ours, and he only appeared during the AH. Even then, he didn't show up all the time though. He had pale skin, cyan blue eyes, a mop of black hair on his head, and was perpetually dressed in striped PJs. Also, dat mole under his left eye. He was easy to distinguish from the never ending throng of people in the world.

"Yyyyyup!" I agreed. "So kid, whatcha doing here?" I called him 'kid' sometimes. Aaaand…

"Don't call me a kid!" Pharos pouted.

"Too bad kid," I smirked.

"Ooh… I would unleash Omega Cluster on you if I could!" Pharos cracked his fists and reared one of them back. However, he didn't punch me. "But I can't. You're lucky. Anyways, it's just because I wanted to see you guys off for another part of your journeys!"

"Ooh, is it like part two?" Hamuko asked, wonder in her eyes.

"Yup! I just wanted to say good luck, even if you won't need it," Pharos smiled. "I'll see you guys during the year, so spend it responsibly," he said before melting away into the darkness.

"As always kid. As always," I nodded. "So. I can feel SP signatures around here."

"I can too," Hamuko agreed. She gasped. "Are there others like us here!?"

"Shh. Now that I can feel them, they might be awake," I warned, earning myself a 'hmph' from Hamuko.

"Who's there!?"

"Too late for that bro," Hamuko sighed.

"I noticed," I mumbled back to my sister, trying to make out the form of the person that was coming down from the staircase at the back. Goddamn this darkness. It was a good thing though, that it always seemed to get lighter in the AH when it was getting closer to ending. So I could see the form of the girl that called out.

She came forward, and by then I could see her. She had light brown, shoulder length hair with same coloured eyes. The girl wore a pink blazer, grey skirt, socks and loafers. Lastly, she had a choker with a heart shape on it.

…that was detail. I feel a bit like a perv now. Go me.

The girl gasped and whoa. Is that a gun in her hand? I LOVE guns! Gimme! I want the bullet! I wanna bite it! "That's a nice gun you have there!" I shouted, promptly getting myself a deadpan from Hamuko, telling me to act normal for once.

"W-What?" The girl pulled up her gun towards—

Holy shit. She's going to commit suicide right in front of us! I stepped forward this time and tried to grab the gun off her. I could see hesitance trembling through her fingers, and she was having trouble pulling the trigger. In a flash- like oh shit, I used Sukukaja –I grabbed her wrist and wrenched the gun out of her shaky grip. "Girl you do that you're making a bad life decision!" I declared, earning myself yet another horrified look from the brunette. Oh fuck.

I tripped and fell down on top of her.

"Help!" she yelled.

"Takeba, what's the matter!?" I heard another person call. She sounds mature and sexy. Woohoo. I really AM a perv now, yay!

"Hello, I'm a transfer student! She was going to kill herself and I didn't want her to, but my feet were so surprised that I tripped on top of her and THAT'S why it kinda looks like I'm straddling her. I swear I'm not a rapist!"

THAT. Is what I shot out of my mouth in rapid succession.

A pall of silence fell as I stood up and dusted myself off.

"I think she wishes I was though! She's at fault!"

…what?

"WHAT?" The girl I pointed at yelled after she stood up.

"I thought…" The other older sounding voice started. Ooh, I can see her now since I'm standing up, and the lights came back on too. She had curled red hair that went past her down to the small of her back, same coloured eyes and pale skin. She looks pretty. She wore a white blouse and grey skirt, but boots instead of shoes and socks. Dayum girl, she so fi— "Takeba, are you alright?"

"U-Um… I'm okay," the girl that I accidentally landed on top of mumbled, shooting daggers at me. Too bad she wasn't shooting lasers. But I can block those too so too bad for her.

The older of the two nodded and sighed what seemed to be a sigh of relief. "Alright," she began.

Wait. Just a minute. Why did that Takeba chick have a gun? "Um excuse me, but why do you have a gun?" Thank you Hamuko.

"Oh um…" The brunette stuttered, however she didn't seem to be able to find the words.

"It's for self-defense," the girl from behind answered succinctly.

Still doesn't explain why she was pointing the gun to her HEAD, but never mind. I want sleep. Sleep now. "Uhh… right," I mumbled. "What're yo names?" I asked.

"I am Kirijo Mitsuru, and this," the red head indicated the brunette. "Is a junior, Takeba Yukari."

"Oh hi," Hamuko said as she smiled and waved to the newly known Yukari. "I'm in the same year as you," she bowed a little. "I'm Arisato Hamuko, and that…"

"Is my older brother…" she said, visibly rolling her eyes. Oh wow, thanks Hamuko! I totally _won't_ need to play a prank on you later…

"I'm Minato," I sighed. "Sorry for getting off on the wrong foot." Literally, but they didn't need to know that. Everyone hated my puns, even the people that didn't know me!

"Um… okay…" Yukari said slowly, eyeing me suspiciously.

…man, getting stared at because I've done something obviously wrong is so much worse than getting stared at because someone wants to fuck me. Like them rabid fangirls. Wait WHAT!?

I need that Carl Jung guy. A good psychologist. Tell me what's wrong with my brain.

"And yo to you Mitsuru-san," I nodded to the redhead. "I don't suppose that we could get some sleep? It's kinda late and all."

"Yes, I think we should all get some rest. Takeba, could you show Hamuko to her room?" Mitsuru asked Yukari. She's really formal…

"Uh sure. Follow me," Yukari said, beckoning Hamuko to follow her. And the two went off.

"I'll show you to your room," Mitsuru nodded as the two went upstairs. Whoo, she's showing me to my room. I want some sweet sleep here.

"Coolio," I replied, hopping up the stairs.

Mitsuru seemed to be giving me sceptical looks as I made my way up. "In any case, your temporary room is at the end of the hallway here," she said, stopping in front of the last door. "The curfew here while you stay is at eleven in the evening, and the last thing to be of note, is that if you lose your key, you will be punished accordingly."

Punished? Sounds cold. "Suries," I nodded.

"Before you go," Mitsuru said, "Did you see anything strange while you came here?"

Well, we did see the AH. But I felt like it would be kinda bad if I told her about that and got myself a one way trip to the asylum. Should've been there a long time ago, but that's beside the point. I decided not to tell her and said, "Nah."

"Was I supposed to?"

…you keep running mouth, why?

"Um… no, but it hasn't been quite as safe around the area as of late," she explained. "I was just checking."

She's a pretty darn good liar.

"Oh okay," I nodded. "Thanks for worrying about me though."

"Not a problem," Mitsuru smiled slightly. "Well, I shouldn't keep you. Good night Arisato." With that, she walked upstairs.

When I finally plonked myself onto my bed… ooh, it's a bed! Cough. Anyways, yes, my bed, I remembered something.

It just registered. I tripped badly earlier. I lost the game of parkour.

Dammit.

* * *

**AN: I discarded Rising, but now we have Heat Rising. I think you might enjoy this more, since it's a bit more light-hearted than Rising. Anyways. I'm sorry and not sorry for discontinuing Rising, but I didn't like where it was going.**

**Anyways. Plz box me yo thoughts and imma see ya guys later.**


	2. Stormy Disposition

"Um, are you awake?"

I vaguely heard that through the door. I wasn't quite sure who it was, but it sure as hell wasn't my sister. I was actually kind of grateful for that actually. "Wait, wait, lemme do this!"

I thought too soon didn't I? "Dudettes, I'm awake!" I managed to shout before Hamuko attempted to bust down the door and break the lock.

"Oh good," Hamuko said with a satisfied tone. "Were you half naked _again_?" she asked casually.

"Why're you saying that while you have that Yukari girl next to you?" I retorted, looking down. I was way too used to cold, so I was more comfortable having less on than not. I wonder what Yukari's thinking right now? That we're crazy?

"S-Shut up Minato," she growled back. By now I could hear that she was flustered and she had no valid argument to counter my earlier question. So I got ready and put on my uniform.

I left the white shirt under the blazer unbuttoned at the top and I didn't bother tucking it under my pants either. I'm too lazy for something like that. I slipped on my blue hoodie over that, and my blazer over that. I really liked layering and knowing that I could deviate from the uniform a little bit was way too awesome of a chance to pass up. The last thing after the clothes was my headphones.

Unlike my sister I listened to my music through my black headphones and my sister through my old silver, metal earphones. I gave those to her after I managed to get these more awesome black ones. But because of the sound cancelling it made me almost deaf. That was pretty much the only down side. With that I picked up my bag and headed out the door.

I dressed quickly, so I didn't keep the two waiting for that long, but Hamuko still looked irritated and Yukari seemed a bit awkward around her. To be expected, to be expected.

"So, we gonna go?" I asked.

"Um yeah," Yukari nodded. "Mitsuru-senpai said for me to lead the way to the school for you guys," she explained.

"Coolio," I nodded.

"Um Minato-senpai?" Yukari asked.

"Don't call me senpai, makes me feel old," I cut in before answering. Despite my interruption, Yukari gave me a small smile.

"Um alright, Minato-kun," she nodded. "But why haven't you tucked in your shirt and everything?"

"Because I'm a trolling rebel. Don't question me," I answered with an upturned nose and smirk. "That's the same reason why Hamuko's wearing the boy's ribbon instead of the red frilly bow thing for the girls."

"Oh," Yukari said. She seemed to look up a little at the ceiling, thinking 'what have I gotten myself into'? 'Why am I associating with these people'? But she didn't say it out loud if she was thinking that.

"That is pretty true," Hamuko agreed. "For once," she muttered. Haha, oh you kidder Hamuko.

"Are you saying that I'm a liar!?" I said incredulously. Although it was all in good acting. I knew full well that I was one hell of a liar. I lied all the time! I would sound so happy if I said that aloud. You horrible person.

"Yes," Hamuko said resolutely, looking at me with a deadpan.

"Eh, you're right," I said, with an almost saddened tone. But hell with being sad about being accused of being a liar. That was all too true and I couldn't care less to be honest.

"Why're you happy about being accused of being a liar?" Yukari asked as we entered the lobby.

"Because that's what I am. It's not something I can get rid of, so I might as well use it to my advantage and be proud of it," I said truthfully. Yeah. For once indeed, Hamuko. For once indeed.

Yukari looked at me with a peculiar, wondering look before nodding along. "I guess I kinda get it," she said.

"Yup! Sometimes, you just gotta be happy with what you have and what you're given, and this guy has pro lying skills, so we might as well use them," Hamuko said, nudging me lightly on the shoulder.

"You have to be happy with what you have…" Yukari mumbled.

"Welp, you don't need to hear us get all philosophical on yo ass when it's just the second time that we've met," I chuckled. "That's for a later time."

"Yup, we're supposed to get to school first!" Hamuko grinned.

After a while, we three reached the monorail station and we were set off smoothly like a boat out to sea across the rails, gliding on the water. Overall, the ride was uneventful without mishaps or bumps. "Oh, this is my favourite part, when it's like you're gliding across the ocean!" Yukari smiled to Hamuko, who nodded in vigorous agreement.

The highlight of it was when the monorail bent around a corner and our eyes were open to the blue stretched out before us. That was, the blue of the sky and the blue of the water below. The sunlight strewed warmth across the cool water, and caressed each wave with pale yellow light. Ah, I love thinking of description in my head. It makes me feel smart.

Needless to say anyways. It was beautiful. Ignoring the Moonlight Bridge, I drew my eyes across the view of Port Island and across the ripples of the water below.

Why did I ignore the Moonlight Bridge? I don't like the Moonlight Bridge, 'nuff said. Go home.

It wasn't long before the train came to a halt and we made our way towards the campus of Gekkoukan. I wonder what it's like… Apparently my parents went here before. They always said that they were smart.

I sighed inwardly, barely tuning in to the middle of Yukari's welcoming words. I did that a lot. I liked drifting in and out of thoughts.

Despite that, I followed Yukari to the lockers, and she gave Hamuko and me possibly the shortest and smallest tour of the ground floor before leaving us to our devices. And to the stares of many fan girls and boys. How wonderful.

"Anyways, let's go to the faculty office," Hamuko said, completely ignoring the stares of every drooling boy pining after her. Comes with maxed out Charm. I can feel the ravenous stares of fan girls now.

It is times like these that I wish I wasn't so lazy. I can't be bothered to button two levels of buttons, and I don't like tucking in my shirt. It's like that tiny bit of skin that I show off because of this grabs everyone's attention.

But if that's what's drawing their attention, maybe once I should unbutton everything on my shirt and just go on like that. Sounds like a great idea, says the irrational part of my brain. Get in trouble with the teachers, maybe induce some nosebleeds, and get jealousy from most males. Etcetera, etcetera.

"Alright then," I nodded. We went off to our lefts, and we idly talked about what pranks we could pull this year. We were smart, and our test scores and grades reflected that. But we two also caused a hella lot of trouble around the school with our troll-like antics.

"Yup, we better mark off our lockers like that. It'd be funny," Hamuko laughed. By then we had reached the doors to the faculty office, and we stepped inside.

…there were papers everywhere. Let's burn everything with our Firebending!

"You two must be the new transfer students?"

Oh hai, it's a teacher! Gasp. "Yuppity yup," I agreed. "Nice to meet you sensei."

"Nice to meet you too!" Hamuko chirruped.

The brunette teacher looked at us both before a small smile appeared on her face. "It's good to see that you two are full of energy this morning. I'm Toriumi Isako."

Before long, she was looking through our files. She didn't _look_ like she had read it before.

Which meant…

"…and ten years ago, your parents…" Obligatory gasp of surprise. "I'm sorry. I didn't get to read this beforehand."

I swear I heard her mutter about another teacher. I wonder what about. "So long as you don't make the same mistake again, which is kinda doubtful, it's fine," I said absentmindedly. "Toriumi-sensei, who was it that kept you up and swept you with so much work that you didn't get to read through our files?" I asked with an amicable smile. Despite that, she seemed to be very surprised by my question. Mind you, what I asked was just a hunch, but a most likely hunch.

"I couldn't tell you that. I'm sure he'd chew me out later anyways," she muttered with a displeased scowl.

"If we find out who this teacher is…" Hamuko began, a devious smirk crawling onto her face as she thought.

"If you two cause any trouble for that teacher, I'm afraid that I would have to punish you two," Toriumi-sensei said with a stern expression.

Hamuko and I grinned at each other. "Too bad sensei," Hamuko giggled. "We'll see how long it'll take until we actually do something about him."

Toriumi-sensei looked at us sceptically with a scrutinising gaze in her eyes. "In any case, if you two cause any trouble in general keep in mind that I will have to take action. From what I've seen on your permanent records, you two seem to be habitual troublemakers."

"We are," we said in unison.

"But for me… it's only something that matters when we start. What are our classes, sensei?" I asked.

Toriumi-sensei blinked before answering, "Right. Hamuko-san, you are in 2-F, that is my class. Minato-san is in 3-A."

"Cool," Hamuko smiled. "You seem like a good teacher sensei!"

That caught Toriumi-sensei off guard. "Oh, I'm not that good. Anyways, I should lead you two to the auditorium for the assembly. Follow me."

With that, we followed the teacher out to said auditorium. I promptly did my utmost to fall asleep once I got a good seat in the midst of the crowd. Unfortunately (or fortunately) Hamuko was separated from me since we were in different classes and we were given specific allocations of space that each class had to fill up.

Once I sank into my chair, listening to the droning of the principal's address, I pulled on my headphones and delved into a world of sweet sleep.

…

…

…

"Oh stop tapping me, I can feel that just fine," I muttered to the person behind me. "I wanted to get some goddamned winks in here," I mumbled. I didn't let him hear the last of my ramblings.

"Oh sorry. Listen, you came with Yukari-san to school today?" the nondescript student asked. I didn't bother looking at him.

I nodded slightly, clearly showing my displeasure as I groaned, quietly.

"Do you know if she has a boyfriend?" he asked.

Poor sap doesn't have the confidence, huh. "I don't know if she does. I only came here to this city a few hours ago, give me a break man. And before you say I live in the same dorm as her or something, I'm not going to pry into someone else's business if I've just met her for barely a few hours. So yeah. You can shut up now."

And shut up he did.

"Especially before you start a rumour before you regret it and get yourself strangled. Guess who's doing the strangling?" I grinned, even though he couldn't see it. I could tell from that pregnant silence that he was definitely done with questions.

Class was uneventful, since it was mostly just housekeeping stuff.

I wonder what Hamuko's up to now.

"Hey Minato, I made a new friend!" Hamuko smiled, meeting me as I left my homeroom.

"Yo! I'm Junpei!"

… What an energetic kid. I said as much, getting the same answer. 'Is that so?'

"Yeah, energy is always good," I smiled at Junpei. "I'm Minato, her older brother."

"Nice to meet you Minato-senpai!" Junpei grinned.

"Don't worry about calling me senpai. I'm about as mature as she is," I laughed, indicating Hamuko, and getting an indignant glare from said girl.

"Are you saying that I'm immature!?" Hamuko growled.

I placed my hand on her head, although this time I didn't bother messing up her hair. That's for another time. And I just laughed at her antics. "Anyways, it's nice to meet you Junpei. Do we have anything happening at the dorm?"

"Not that I know of!" Hamuko said, seemingly forgetting her earlier bout of rage.

"Good because if you don't mind…" I grinned at Junpei. "Do ya wanna show us Port Island a little, Junpei?"

"Sure!" Junpei agreed.

"Yay!" Hamuko said happily.

…

Junpei graciously showed us around the new areas of Port Island, showing us around Paulownia Mall especially. That place seemed pretty nice. "So, you guys transferred here and all, why'd you come here?" Junpei asked with a friendly smile. It was almost like a trademark grin of his.

"Well, we got a letter, scholarship thing and all, and we came here," Hamuko said. "It's about as simple as that. Me and my bro are pretty smart and we can get perfect in our test scores…"

"Perfect, really?" Junpei asked.

"Yeah, but we two like to spend our times pranking around the school, stuff like that," I chuckled. "So despite our scores, we're not ideal students. Our permanent records are just about screwed over. It's been like that since the beginning of middle school."

"Wow," the capped teen said. "You guys're awesome!"

"Eh, we're not that awesome. I'm just a troll and a liar. Hamuko's raging and snaps a hella lot," I laughed. "But thanks!" I said, slapping Junpei on the back lightly.

"In any case Junpei, what about you? I don't suppose that your school record is marred to all hell like ours?" Hamuko said with an amicable smile.

"Nah, nothing like that. I just… I don't like studying or anything," Junpei grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. "I mean my test scores kinda suck and I hate them?"

I couldn't help but let a smile come onto my face. "Hah, it's always like that, ne? I don't blame you," I laughed.

"Yeah, school's always like that," Hamuko agreed. "I mean, so long as you pass Junpei, you can do whatever you want after school and all. You just need to know what you want to do, and that's it! You go for it!"

Junpei's eyes widened a little, but his surprised expression came back to that happy-go-lucky grin of his. "You know what, you're right!"

I chuckled at that as we came closer to our dorm. "Glad you agree," I nodded. "So, that's our dorm up ahead," I said, indicating the bricked building with the stairs and hedges out front.

"Yeah, so we have to go," Hamuko said sadly.

"Ah nah, it's okay," Junpei laughed. "You guys are pretty cool, I liked hanging with ya."

"Hah, I thought you might've gotten annoyed by us," I teased.

"Annoyed by you, you mean," Hamuko rolled her eyes.

I waved off my sister's snark and turned back to Junpei. "Well, I'm glad that you did. You wouldn't mind hanging with us again then?" I asked.

"Hell yeah!" Junpei fistpumped.

"Awesome! See ya later then Junpei," I grinned, making my way to the dorm's entrance.

"I'll see you in class tomorrow then Junpei!" Hamuko said, and before long she had caught up with me.

I turned back to see how Junpei was going, seeing that he was going in the completely opposite direction of where we had just come from. Was his home all the way that way? Huh… He mustn't want to go home.

"Take care going home man!"

…did I just blurt that out?

Junpei turned back from his slow walk and waved back at us. I wonder… interesting. Better check up on him tomorrow.

"That was awfully nice of you," Hamuko commented. "You noticed he didn't seem to want to go home, huh?"

"Yeah… He mustn't have a very good home life," I muttered. "But as if I could speak. We haven't really had a home in a while, have we?"

"True," Hamuko agreed. "Anyways, enough moping. Let's go inside!"

I nodded, but not before looking out over the streets. Would this place be our home after ten years of avoiding it? Hm… I shook my head. Whatever happened, happened.

Once I joined Hamuko, I saw Mitsuru and someone else with glasses.

"Oh, I see you two have made it back."

I went on alert.

* * *

**AN: Let us hope that this goes the right way. I'm glad that some people are enjoying Heat Rising so far. And I'm glad I got rid of the placeholder cover! Plz box me yo thoughts and imma see ya guys later.**

**Yoshikunitsu: Haha, I tried. Well, they are more carefree, but it still ain't all sunshine and daisies.**  
**Nah, it's controlled by me. Question is whether that's better or worse…**  
**Welp, hope you like this chapter too then. Suries.**

**Decode: Glad you're liking it so far. I'll do my best to update both.**

**TheRedMan: The writing or the characters? Elaborate plz.**

**Glasbowl14: Glad you think it's fun. You'll see, you'll see.**

**Nights: Yes! And yes, the personality clashes. I love doing that, Hamuko and Minato are hilarious to write when they don't agree on something. Oh right. Hahaha.**  
**Yes, I'll do my best to make it epic. Oh you'd like that kind of Minato, wouldn't you?**


	3. Shaky Footsteps

"Minato, you okay?" Hamuko asked, although I could see the same apprehension in her eyes as well. There was something seriously wrong about this guy, and whatever it was… it was sending my powers into frenzy, as if it wanted to claw out and strangle him. Of course I could handle my own power fine, but it was strange to feel that resistance.

Mitsuru and that man looked at me expectantly, and I knew I had to get myself out of this somehow. "I just thought I saw something," I said, bringing my gaze back to Mitsuru and then back to Hamuko. "Something pretty weird."

"I see…" Mitsuru said slowly before turning back to the glasses guy. "Anyways, this is the chairman of the board for our school."

"Thank you Mitsuru," the chairman said. I'm calling him that until I register a name for him.

"My name is Shuji Ikutsuki," he said with a _sickeningly_ friendly smile. "Hard to say, isn't it? Sometimes even I get tongue-tied sometimes."

"It's not that hard. I'm Minato," I said slowly.

"I'm Hamuko," my sister said, "I don't think your name is hard either." She seemed to have a hard time staying calm around this guy as well.

"Nice to meet the both of you. Are you both settling into your school life here so far?" Ikutsuki asked.

"Yeah, it's pretty nice," I answered, trying to calm myself down still.

"I like it!" Hamuko said excitedly. I wonder if she's still feeling a bit jittery. Probably.

"It's good to see," Ikutsuki said. "Well now, I believe you two should get some rest. The early bird catches the bookworm!"

…yet another reason to hate him. "Riiight," I mumbled.

After that meeting, Hamuko and I started upstairs, but not before running into Yukari. "Hey, how was the chairman?" she asked.

"I don't like his puns," I rolled my eyes. Gotta stop myself from saying 'I don't like him.'

"Ugh," Yukari groaned. She seemed to share the same sentiments. "You get used to it," she sighed.

"I hope I don't," Hamuko sighed. "Welp, I'm gonna get some sleep and stuff, see ya Yukari-chan!" With that, Hamuko ran up the stairs, presumably to her room.

"Aren't you going to go?" Yukari asked as I stayed planted on the floor.

…hm. "Yeah, I've just been thinking."

"Thinking? About what?" Yukari asked slowly, as if she wasn't sure whether she should ask or not.

"Well besides the chairman… Hamuko seems to be getting used to the place," I pointed out. She seemed warmed up to the school already, so that was quite rare. It usually took a while before she would start being her bubbly self.

"Oh yeah, you guys have been transferring a lot, isn't that right?" Yukari asked.

I looked at Yukari curiously. How did she know that? I kept quiet about that, not exactly wanting to press on too hard. I could find out later. For all I know, maybe that Mitsuru girl told her. She seemed to be head of the place and all. I nodded at that. "Yeah, all over the place," I chuckled. "I don't know whether it's because of our school records or because we're just getting around to every relative that we didn't know."

"What do you mean by that?" Yukari gave me a curious look, although she seemed not to be all that comfortable asking; her eyes were darting around the place nervously.

"Well, since our parents died and everything, we've kinda been tossed around the place by our relatives. None of them really wanted to deal with us two," I laughed a little, rubbing the back of my head.

"Um…" she mumbled.

"Yup, we're not really that sensitive about it anymore," I chuckled. Lies. "If you wanna ask, then ask."

"Uh, okay," Yukari nodded slightly. "It's just that…"

I scrutinised her nervous, yet determined expression. Hm. "Did you lose someone?"

That surprised Yukari and she nodded dumbly. "I see," I nodded in response. "You wanna say something about it?"

"I'm not completely sure…" she mumbled.

"Eh, you got me in a talkative mood," I laughed. "Well, if you want to, then you can tell me or Hamuko. Then maybe _I'll_ tell you more."

"Um, okay," Yukari said.

I nodded and went back to my room. Then promptly threw myself onto my bed with a mirthful smile. I almost opened up in front of her. Geez. I flipped onto my back, looking listlessly at the ceiling and releasing a heavy sigh. You gotta be careful man.

I closed my eyes, not expecting anything to happen that night. I changed and went to sleep.

The last thing I noticed before that was that the moon seemed to take up almost all the window…

…

"Hello?" I heard, looking on at nothing. Strange dream you've gotten yourself into Minato.

"Yeah? I don't think I've heard you before," I commented.

"Me neither. I didn't have any intention of this," she said. Her voice sounded very feminine, so that's what I assumed.

"No intention? If someone magically contacts me during my dreams I'd think it would have some kind of purpose," I said mirthfully.

"If there is, it must've been someone or something else's doing," she breathed out.

"Well then. Since we're here… What's your name?" I asked.

"My name?" she said.

"Yeah, your name. I'm Minato," I elaborated.

"My name… my name is Nyx," she answered.

"Nyx, like the goddess?" I asked with a mirthful laugh and an expression to match. If she was the goddess, then that would make sense that she was a girl.

"More like, I am the goddess," she insisted. Oh. Well that would make more sense. And yay, she was a girl like I thought.

"Oh cool. Why's Nyx talking to me?" I continued. I couldn't see her in my dream. It was just pitch black and I heard her voice, speaking quietly but sternly in my mind. I wonder what she looked like briefly however I shook my head. You're crazy for thinking that this is all real.

Oh right, I've been crazy for about ten years. Never mind. "You speak as if you think I would have a superiority complex because I am a goddess," she said.

…okay that one surprised me. I always thought she would be hard to talk to since she was super snarky from her confidence. "I thought you did, but it looks like you don't. I think I like that."

"I see," Nyx said. She did not sound amused by my small comment. Or at least she didn't seem as she would snap at me. "I've been dormant up until now… so I don't have as much consciousness as I could. The most I've gotten are a few glimpses of human history while I slept."

"What'd you think of what you saw?" I said curiously.

"I believe… Well, I'm not quite sure," Nyx said unsurely.

"Huh," I nodded inwardly to myself. "Say, why're you just a disembodied voice in my head? It's kinda weird talking to someone that I can't see."

"You want to see what I look like, don't you?" she said.

"Yeah, I do," I agreed.

"I suppose I could…" she trailed off.

Once I blinked, I could make out a figure in front of me. What I could see almost blended in seamlessly with the darkness, but that was probably just because of the black dress that she was wearing. I could make that out against her near white skin. I think this is Nyx…

Her hair was long and dark, and reached down to the small of her back. She had four large, feathery wings that glowed silently with cyan vein-like light. In fact, that blue matched the colour of her eyes. She looked strikingly like Pharos in fact, when it came to appearance.

…oh god, what have I realised?

She shook her bangs out of the way of her vision and she looked me up and down. "Figures," she mumbled. 'Figures'?

"I might as well get this out here," I began, almost entranced by her beauty. "You look really pretty."

"So I've heard," she nodded. Nyx didn't seem very sure as to how to react to the compliment. Ouch.

"Hm… you don't look half-bad yourself," she commented.

"Oh really?" I chuckled. "Thanks."

"'Thanks?'" she asked.

"Yeah, I showed gratitude to your compliment," I explained. How hard was that a concept to grasp?

"…why?" Nyx asked further.

"Because… well, I feel like I have to, that's all," I said, rubbing the back of my head.

"Interesting…" she mumbled. "Perhaps I will be coming back here Minato. You say interesting things. I'd like to learn more about them. I do not have much experience with the human world…"

"I see," I nodded. Didn't seem like she could have experience.

"I believe it's nearly morning in your world," Nyx said. "Once the time comes I must leave Tartarus, and Hemera shall take her rest."

Tartarus? Huh… I nodded dumbly, not really sure what to say to that. The only thing that I could grasp was that she meant her time was limited to speak with me. That was all I got out of it. "Right…"

"Well, I shall see you once more, and perhaps many times after this. Farewell…"

With that, her form disappeared from my eyes and before long I felt myself slipping into deep sleep. Wait, how was she even able to speak to me if she had been dormant for so long?

"I used your knowledge of Japanese speech. You were quite generous in lending it."

…I have no idea what that means.

…

Before long, I had woken up due to my alarm and I groggily got up, went over to it and stopped the beeping noise. "That was one weird dream," I muttered to myself before promptly getting ready for school.

I entered the lobby with my stuff and immediately set about making some toast. Yeah, I liked toast better than normal breakfast. It was quick and easy. You just stuck it in the oven toaster and waited until the box made the 'ding' sound and then you put spread on it or something and eat it. Toast is awesome.

And dread is bread.

…I'm too obsessed with that song for my own good. I swear.

And gasp! I heard footsteps! I didn't think I would hear footsteps this early in the morning. I liked waking up early because then I'd have time to go back to my room and browse stuff idly on the internet. It's fun! What reason could this other person have to be up so early?

"Hey, I haven't seen you around before," I heard.

"Neither have I! What's your name?" I asked, looking at the silver haired dude that just came downstairs. He had same coloured eyes to match, pale skin, and a red vest to go on top of his uniform. And those leather gloves.

"I'm Sanada Akihiko, but it's just Akihiko," he said.

"Cool. I'm Arisato Minato, but you can just call me Minato since everyone does and those that don't should," I grinned, munching the last of my toast. "So, if you don't mind me asking, what brings you up so early?"

"Oh, I usually go for a jog around this time of the morning," Akihiko replied.

"Jogging, that's a thing," I nodded. "Sounds good to me. Actually…"

"Huh?" Akihiko raised an eyebrow.

"Can I come?" I grinned.

"Well, if you really want to. If you think that you can keep up that is," Akihiko grinned back. Same wavelength…

"Pshh, I can keep up no problem," I smirked. It was probably true. Fighting made you fit. Jumping off buildings when things were chasing you made for parkour. Doing both at the same time was hard. So now I'm actually pretty athletic.

"If you say so. I ain't going easy," Akihiko chuckled.

"Didn't think so," I laughed before swallowing down the last and following Akihiko out the door.

…

The morning was brisk and cool, but that was to be expected when you were just coming out of spring. It wasn't too brightly lit on the streets either. I set off with Akihiko at a pretty good pace and I was keeping up with him pretty easily.

"Not bad, people're usually tired already," Akihiko chuckled as we jogged.

"Do you jog to the school every day?" I asked.

"Yeah, it's good training. I usually train more in the afternoon and in the evening," he explained.

"Oh, training? For what? You go to a club or something?" I said, "Tell me if I'm being annoying I like bombarding people with questions if I'm curious."

"Nah, it's fine. I'm the captain of the boxing team for this year," Akihiko answered.

"Ooh, captain," I nodded. "That's cool. I can fight as well, but I don't do boxing."

"What do you do then?" he asked with an enthusiastic smile.

"Well, it's really just brawling," I admitted. "But I also use swords, two most of the time."

"A brawling two-handed sword fighter?" Akihiko asked. "Sounds complicated. Why'd you need to know something like that?"

"Well," I mumbled. "To be honest, before I used to get into fights a lot so I had to get good at it." Not a lie, not the full truth either. "Found that using a broken pipe or two was just like using swords. And knives."

Akihiko raised an eyebrow at me. To be expected, to be expected.

…hm.

"Say, would you happen to know what a Persona is?"

Whoa. I did NOT intend to say that aloud.

"Persona?" Akihiko looked at me incredulously.

I silently regathered my thoughts and replied, "Well, I've been studying up a little on psychology and the term popped up. I thought it was kinda interesting and I wanted to see if you knew."

Akihiko shook his head and blinked a few times before relaxing. "Uh, not really. I don't study psychology…" he mumbled.

…note to self. I have to try not to blurt things out. Things'll usually end up really awkward. But from what I know now… he knows about the Persona that I was first referring to. Looks like my suspicions about the people at the dorm being Persona users wasn't far off at all. "Eh, it's okay. I just thought that it was pretty cool. Apparently if someone has a persona, then that persona is something that they use to act differently and make decisions. And under that persona, people can turn out to be a lot different than you would expect."

"Uh right," Akihiko nodded.

Looks like I got out of that one intact. I wonder if he's suspicious of me now. "We're nearly to the school," I pointed out. I better just assume worst case scenario and say that he's got some kind of suspicion about m. Best to be careful than not.

"Yeah," he agreed. "I need to go make some prep for the boxing club, so see ya around?" Akihiko said.

"Sure," I nodded, separating from the boxer.

I looked around the sky, and around the school entrance. Then I looked to my pocket watch. I'm still about an hour early. What to do now? Meh, I better check out the rest of the school. I still don't know it very well. With that in mind, I went inside and took in the corridors and hallways, not to mention the stairs and whatever.

There were very few things that caught my attention. The only thing that I really looked at was the persimmon tree. It was broad leaved and bold. It must've been very healthy, at least from what I could tell. I wasn't any plant expert.

The last place that I checked out was the rooftop. And it caught my interest the most.

It was mostly empty, thanks to it being so early in the morning. I imagined that a lot of people came up to the rooftop during the break and perhaps after school.

I sat down on a bench, swinging my legs idly as I looked over the sparkling water through the bars. It looked prettier here. But I guessed that was because I wasn't moving. On the train, you only had a brief moment to look at the view, and that was it. Here, I felt like I could stare at it forever.

"I haven't seen you so pensive before."

I smiled slightly. "Perhaps not," I mumbled.

"Minato, what do you think you're going to do for the rest of the year? You haven't exactly got yourself a set path anymore," Pharos asked, hovering behind me like always.

"I don't know. But you're right, I don't have an exact way that I could go," I nodded. "But I think that it'd be more interesting that way. I feel like something could happen if… if I was still with them, and I have a bad feeling about it. Somehow, without them looking after us, I feel free."

"People are always free," Pharos said with a small smile as he finally settled down on the bench next to me. No-one could see him but Hamuko and me. That was why I had to keep my voice down.

"I know," I agreed. "But I felt like I wasn't before. I still feel bound now, but somehow…"

"Somehow?" Pharos raised an eyebrow.

"It doesn't feel as bad," I chuckled.

"Well, if you're happy about it, I'll go along with you like always," Pharos smiled before fading away.

"I know you will," I smiled mirthfully, idly tracing my eyes over the pattern on my pocket watch; the pattern that formed Ouroboros. It was a nostalgic thing, and it was always an accurate time.

I didn't bother moving from the bench through the rest of school.

…My attendance record was also going to be complete and utter shit.

I came back to the dorm in the early evening, and Mitsuru was there to greet me once I entered. "Welcome back," she said as she looked up from her book.

"Thanks," I nodded.

"Where were you during class?" Mitsuru asked with a sceptical expression.

"If you haven't caught on already, I do not like following the rules," I shrugged. "So yeah, I skipped," I said honestly with a patronising smirk. I saw a dismayed and stern expression appear on Mitsuru's face. To be expected, to be expected.

"Arisato…" she began, ice seemingly lacing her voice. "Do you know what I do to people who do not take schooling seriously?"

"What, you gonna freeze my balls off in a block of ice? Keep dreaming honey," I laughed, immediately putting my Null Ice Persona on.

"W-What?" Mitsuru seemed to be dumbfounded by what I just said. Must've gotten it right?

"Besides, you can't argue with my test scores either, they're pretty much perfect," I continued. "Unfortunately, I don't listen to anyone," I smirked at Mitsuru. Nor do I to myself, but that's beside the point. "And I haven't for pretty much a decade now, I ain't changing now."

Mitsuru stayed silent for a few moments, glaring at me.

"Guys, get a room!"

What?

"What?"

"What?"

"What? You guys've been staring at each other so long it's as if you want each other soooo badly," Hamuko rolled her eyes.

Goddammit Hamuko.

Hmmm… "Yes, and we're obviously not going to have some wild, wild hate sex upstairs. Even I'M dismayed at the thought. Buzz off Hamuko," I shook my head.

"Fine, fine, just breaking the ice here, geez!" Hamuko raised her hands in a surrender position before wandering upstairs.

"Before you ask, I'd never consider going at it with you," I deadpanned at Mitsuru. "I was just joking to make her go away."

Huh, she was blushing a tiny bit. "You had better hope that it was only for that purpose or so help it I will Execute you."

"Pfft. Whatever you say ice queen," I shrugged off her threat, promptly making my way upstairs.

You know what I said about going at it with her earlier? That was a complete and utter lie. I wouldn't mind.

Later that night, during the AT, when I was TRYING to get some sleep, the dorm shook. Kinda like in the middle of an earthquake, but I knew that it wasn't. A signature of a powerful Shadow caught my attention and I stood up to get dressed. To my surprise, Yukari and Hamuko met me at the door. So they were awake during the AT. My suspicions weren't off at all.

"You're already- Never mind. We have to get out of here now," Yukari said frantically, handing me a… whoa, they keep swords in here too? Next thing I know they keep war scythes and hammers too! Anyways, I held onto the sword. It wasn't as good as my ones, but it'd do if I needed it. Something told me that I might not have to use it, but meh. Never hurt to be safe in the AT.

"Uh right," I nodded, pretending to play dumb. I silently shot a glance at Hamuko, trying to tell from her expression whether she had told Yukari that she knew about the AT already. She shook a 'no' before following Yukari downstairs.

Looks like not. Guess I will have to play along.

I ran after the two girls however I stopped once I saw Yukari turn from the back door that we would've been using to escape. At least, I guessed it would be. It seemed to be the most logical exit.

"What!? Um, okay," Yukari nodded vigorously. She was talking to someone. Was that an earpiece? How technologically advanced… Electronics didn't work during the AT. It was pretty annoying to be honest.

"We have to find another way out," Yukari said, turning to Hamuko and I.

Hamuko glanced at me, and I nodded. "I dunno, I guess we could try the roof?" Hamuko suggested.

To be honest, that was the worst escape route ever, but we weren't planning to escape. We were planning to fight whatever the hell this Shadow was and beat it into oblivion. Should be pretty easy.

"Alright," Yukari agreed, and soon enough we were running up the stairs to the rooftop.

The only thing that I questioned was why the hell Yukari thought it would be a good idea to lock the door behind us. "We should be safe for no-"

Nope.

A creepy, lurching sound brought us all to attention, and my initial Persona on edge. This was it?

Ink hands slithered over the top of the roof, and an eerily blue mask, which I noted to be a typical Magician mask, peered over the edge, held up by yet another inky hand.

Slow down there… I muttered to my first Persona. It was literally banging and raging about in my head in frenzy, almost as if it was reacting to the presence of the Shadow that was encroaching towards us.

At first glance, the Magician Shadow looked harmless, what with its several hands and arms flailing about, but… well, I kinda changed my opinion after you know, the huge motherfucking swords materialised into its hands?

Just great.

"Uh, right, I have to," I turned to Yukari who was muttering under her breath, and I saw that Hamuko did as well; especially since she was pointing that same gun to her forehead that I saw two days ago. What the fuck was she doing!?

She seemed to have trouble pulling the trigger, and she never got time to since a spiralling column of fire was sent streaming at her. Shit.

"Surt!" Hamuko shouted.

On cue, a black skinned Persona with a flaming sword appeared in a flurry of blue mist, completely absorbing the fiery attack.

Heh. I sent a smirk to Hamuko and she gave that same cocky look to me as well.

"Let's get this shit started then, shall we?" I grinned, not even having to mutter a word.

A primal roar rang out in the air, and I saw my initial Persona form behind me. "Thannie, let's get 'em."

"You know it, other me," I heard Pharos' childish voice speak lowly in my mind.

So began the stare down between Thanatos and the Magician.

Place your bets motherfuckers!

I ran towards the Shadow and Thanatos sounded his battle cry.

"Hamuko, you got Yukari?" I shouted to her.

"Yeah, don't worry about her Minato," Hamuko smiled back.

Okay then. I grasped thin air, initially feeling nothing. However, that soon changed as I felt something cold form. I swung my arm as I came closer to the Magician, and in a flash a line of Ichor spurt out of a long, deep gash. Brave Blade.

I heard the familiar surge of Almighty and Dark Magic, and I hopped to Thanatos' side. I had no intentions of getting hit with that spell.

From Thanatos' maw, a red and black globe of energy shot towards the Shadow, however it seemed to be quick enough to dodge most of the blast radius. Stubborn little thing, isn't it?

"I didn't get him this time," Pharos mumbled with a disappointed tone.

I merely chuckled at that. The Magician crawled out of the majority of the blast radius, but it wasn't unscathed. Some of its' swords were dissolved and a few of its' arms were shredded away by the attack. That was, Omega Cluster.

"Don't worry about it," I mumbled with a small smile.

I waved my hand and a tendril of water materialised from it. I swung my arm, and the watery whip smacked right into the Magician and knocked it over. Ah, Aquedyne.

Next, the water spread and dispersed onto the Magician's felled frame. I proceeded to freeze the water with a Bufudyne with a wave of freezing wind, and it was stuck right in place.

"Your turn," I smirked to the waiting Thanatos.

I could imagine him smirking under that dragon-like mask of his, and with one fell swing of his sword, the Magician was cleaved in two. Before long, its' form disappeared into red and black mist, leaving small blotches of Ichor where it dissipated.

"That was fun," I chuckled and hi-fived Thannie before letting him recede into the sea of my soul.

"Show off," I heard Hamuko mutter.

I merely smirked at that. You snooze you lose.

* * *

**AN: Extra-long chapter, ne? Anyways, plz box me yo thoughts and imma see ya guys later.**

**Gerson: Null Physical is Persona 4. Omega Cluster is Persona 2, both games. I'm not only using Persona 3 skills. That'd be too boring.**

**Yoshikunitsu: Fools will be Fools… that means shit is always thrown in their direction.**  
**They dispelled the original future a long, long time ago.**  
**Yes indeedly. Suries.**

**JackFrostDoll: As my imagination and self-imposed limitations can go.**

**Decode: Glad you were excited.**  
**I liked that line too. There's plenty more of it.**


	4. Choosing Between Silence And Noise

"Yukari, you safe?" Hamuko asked with a friendly smile. Of course. She said 'safe' as opposed to 'okay' because no-one could really be okay after that. Well, except me and Hamuko, but that's beside the point.

"U-Um, I think so," the brunette nodded shakily.

"Awesome!" Hamuko cheered, hugging Yukari vigorously.

Since when did the two of them get so close? I'm almost jealous. I want me some chums like that. Some good age fellows.

Behind Yukari and Hamuko, the door burst open with Mitsuru and Akihiko in the frame. "Hamuko, Minato, Takeba!" Mitsuru exclaimed, "Are you all alright?"

"I'm cool," I nodded, "Hamuko and Yukari-chan are good too."

The redhead nodded. "Alright. It's good you're all safe," Mitsuru said with the smallest of smiles. She mustn't smile very often. Her lips seemed to have a hard time turning up.

Akihiko let out a sigh of relief as he observed all of us. "Alright, I think we should call it a night, if there aren't any Shadows left," he motioned to Mitsuru, who seemed to be closing her eyes in concentration.

After a few moments, her eyes opened and she nodded. "There aren't any left," Mitsuru nodded. "Let us all get some rest. We can all explain ourselves tomorrow once we get some sleep."

"Sounds good to me," Hamuko said as she stood up and stretched, skipping behind Akihiko and Mitsuru, downstairs.

"Yukari-chan, you okay to stand up?" I asked her.

She looked at me curiously for a few seconds before nodding wordlessly to her feet. "Yeah, I'll be alright." With that, she too followed Hamuko to their girls' rooms.

I looked at Mitsuru and Akihiko, both of whom seemed to be looking at me sternly.

"Guys, you're kinda staring at me? Have I that much charm?" I asked jokingly, trying to lighten the two of them up.

"Uh well… it's just you destroyed that Shadow so easily and you summoned a really powerful Persona," Akihiko said slowly, seemingly echoing Mitsuru's sentiments. She nodded in agreement to Akihiko's statement, and the two of them looked to me for a 'why.'

I nodded in agreement. "I did," I smiled wryly. "Hamuko and I have been doing this for nearly a decade now."

"You've been active for ten years?" Mitsuru's eyes widened in utter shock.

"Yup," I nodded. Five of them bound, five of them not. I would've said that aloud, but they wouldn't have got the meaning. "Hamuko and I will explain it to ya guys tomorrow, yeah?" I said, sounding it almost like a question. But I knew that they would at least nod or say 'yes' to that.

Mitsuru nodded dumbly before looking down at the ground. Huh. Wonder what she's looking sad about? "Right, we should get some rest," Akihiko agreed, giving a quick glance to Mitsuru, who looked up and nodded. Before long the two of them had gone down the stairs, I was left alone and the blood, green and Ichor disappeared. The sky returned to normal.

I closed my eyes and breathed out with a small smile. It looks like our second part has already begun.

…

Hamuko and I ran like hell away from our car. It was blown up when they somehow crashed, and then this huge monster came and destroyed the last of it. I didn't care about what I left behind at this point and we ran as fast as they could from the dread I could feel.

"Minato, it's getting closer!" Hamuko cried.

I looked back at my sis and bit my lip, but just tightened my grip and continued pulling her along as fast and as hard as I could. The monster was chasing after us, fast. There was a white something _shooting_ at the black monster, but even with all the bullets that landed on it, it still hadn't died. I couldn't wonder too much about it, but I really just wanted it gone.

A large explosion sounded behind us, and they we were knocked off our feet. When I looked up, I saw that the monster, while seemingly not too affected, was knocked over by the force.

Before Hamuko and I recovered, a bright flash of light blinded them, and in the place of the monster I could barely make out the form of a black haired boy in striped pyjamas, but it quickly disappeared as soon as I saw it. Lastly, the white thing that was chasing after the monster collapsed in a crumpled heap onto the ground.

I gulped, taking in what had just happened. I hugged Hamuko tightly in his arms, looking at the carnage torn around the bridge and road. My heart raced at an impossibly fast rate, and somehow, even though everything had calmed down around him, inside I was still so nervous.

I never hugged Hamuko before, but I couldn't think about doing anything else. I didn't want to lose her too. I wondered whether it was all a dream, but somewhere deep inside, I think I knew that it wasn't, and I cried.

…

I barely got any sleep last night thanks to that stupid Shadow, so I was even more tired than usual. Ugh, sometimes having an extra hour in the day just had to mess up my sleeping habits so hard.

I got up out of my bed however, trying to decide whether I should go to school or not.

"Huh…" I sighed, looking about my ruffled hair. Goddamned bedhead, I swear. Hmm… You know what? I'll take a nap later on in the day. That sounds good.

I stretched and looked out the window. It was barely light out. Happens when you wake up at six, but that's beside the point. Also, it was cold. Guess spring wasn't always going to be that awesome and nice, warm, toasty… Winter's the season for that kinda thing.

"Hello?"

I looked around curiously, hearing that vaguely familiar voice come forth from the corners of my room. "Uh hey?" I asked. I didn't want to look around anymore. That was how lazy I was in the morning.

"It's just me, Nyx," she said.

"Yo, where are ya?" I called after her.

"Well, I can't easily materialise during the day time. I'm just speaking to you through the sea of your soul," she replied. Ah right, goddess of night, can't materialise in day time. Makes sense.

"Oh okay," I nodded. "Wassup?" I asked, settling back down in my bed. I decided that I was going to skip school and get some more sleep. Can't be stuffed.

"Well, I was impressed seeing you defeat that Shadow," Nyx said.

"It was nothing," I laughed a little, lying back down and grabbing my DS. "I've been doing this for a while so I might as well be good at it."

"I see," she nodded. At least, I could imagine her nodding. "It seems that you have been playing with my son, Thanatos as well…"

"Oh yeah, he's pretty cool and awesome," I smiled a little, knocking out Cynthia's Garchomp with Dragon Claw. "He's a good friend and ally too."

"I saw that you two co-operated very well. It's good to see that even he has made a friend," Nyx mumbled. Is that motherly love I sense?

"Yeah…" I nodded. "Nyx, you sound concerned about Thanatos," I laughed amicably.

"Of course. He is my son after all…" she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Aww, she does have a semblance of heart!

"Heh. You're not all that bad," I chuckled as I shut off my DS.

"Thank you?" Nyx said uncertainly.

"Yup, yup," I nodded. "I think someone might be up right now. I better haul my ass outta here," I smirked as I got dressed and opened up my window.

"You mean that you're actually going to jump out of your window to escape?" Nyx asked with a seemingly sceptical voice. "Isn't that dangerous?"

"It is," I replied nonchalantly. "Do you think I care?"

"Shouldn't you?"

"I don't. I'm free to do what I want. I can do what I want, when I want, and no-one isn't going to tell me what I can and can't do," I said defiantly as I leapt out the window, landing on my feet after I rolled.

"Hm. Your defiance is admirable," Nyx said.

"It's not defiance," I smiled. "I am merely revelling in the freedom that I know I have. I am my own person, and I can do whatever the fuck I want. No-one will ever tell me otherwise."

"Freedom, you say? What makes you think that we have free will?" Nyx scoffed. Hah, even she didn't think so. Which was fine.

"I don't believe that I have free will," I answered. "I would just like to believe that I have any semblance of free will, any shred that I would like to have of freedom is real. So I rebel and I won't be chained."

"That's a little ironic…" I heard Nyx mutter, but I chose not to comment on that. "Why are you heading to the school? I thought you weren't going to go?"

"I didn't say that I was going to go to school. I just said that I didn't want to get caught not actually attending class," I laughed, running through the crowds of people without abandon or care for what they thought about me. It feels just like I'm a kid again. "I can still go to the school to avoid something like that."

"…how peculiar," Nyx chuckled.

"Peculiar should be a middle name of mine," I smirked inwardly, charging into the school. That took a shorter amount of time getting here than the last time. I took a deep breath to relax my heart beat and walked on through.

"Minato, what are you doing here?" Toriumi-sensei asked as I passed through the corridors.

I raised an eyebrow and chuckled. "No reason other than to mess with everything," I laughed. "But damn girl, you look awesome."

"What?" she blinked.

"Exactly what I said, girl," I smirked, going around her and slapping her ass. I thought I heard some shouting come after me, but I promptly ignored it in favour of revelling in that blush that I knew I saw on her face.

"Arisato!" Toriumi-sensei said angrily.

"Oh shit, I thought you were Yukari!" I lied, scrambling out of sight.

"Did you really just do that?" Nyx said, but I couldn't really tell whether she was amused or whether she was unimpressed.

"Yup," I chuckled, climbing on top of a bunch of lockers, tucking my legs at the top and squishing against the wall so that I couldn't be seen easily.

"You're just going to spend your time bothering people around the school, aren't you?" Nyx sighed, but somehow through her tone I found a small, but knowing smile tucked away in the darkness.

"Indeed," I grinned.

…

I feel like every student that I could get to was sufficiently traumatised by my presence.

An unapologetic smile creased my face as I walked back to the dorm. Nyx had been commenting on my pranks during the day. It seemed likely that she was just going to be with me every step of the way now. She seemed to be asking questions constantly about what I was doing many times. I guessed she was a pretty curious bugger.

"I am not a bugger," she rolled her eyes. I could imagine her doing that. Also did I mention that she could read my mind already? I can't remember.

"Oh, I know. Take it as an expression of endearment. Or not," I laughed to myself, walking to the dorm.

"Endearment? I beg to differ. I may be watching you out of pure boredom and curiosity, but we are by no means… well, whatever you humans call friends or even acquaintances," Nyx said defiantly.

"Aw, but I like you. You're interesting," I said simply, opening the door and leaving myself open to the glares that I knew were being thrown my way.

"…welcome back Arisato," Mitsuru said tersely.

"Indeed. Are you still angry that I burst into the classroom with my shirt unbuttoned and subsequently made every girl in the glass have a nosebleed and cause the ire of pretty much every guy in the class with my finely-toned chest and abs, not to mention my natural awesomeness?" I smirked at Mitsuru who merely looked at me coldly.

"You disrupted class," she said simply. "Yes, I'm still angry Arisato," Mitsuru said slowly.

"Minato-kun, you totally messed up class today, and why was Toriumi-sensei glaring at you like that?" Yukari complained.

"I slapped her ass in the morning," I smirked. "She totally started blushing."

"What!?" Mitsuru exclaimed.

"You heard me girl," I chuckled, bemused by Mitsuru's surprised expression. "Anyways, that isn't why we're here today, is it?" I asked, diverting the situation to something else. That short moment of rage and recognition was nice, but I really only did these kinds of things just for myself and no-one else. Ah, I love my egotism.

"Do you really?" Nyx asked.

"Yup," I mumbled. "Weren't we supposed to be talking about how we all know about the Shadows and stuff?"

"Um yeah…" Yukari nodded, although she seemed to be pretty nervous for whatever reason. I wonder where Hamuko is…?

Ah, she glomped me. "Hello Hamuko," I chuckled a little. "Right on cue there actually."

"My timing is impeccable," she said after getting off me.

"Yes so now. Who wants to talk about _Shadows_?" I asked with an unconventional smile.

"…yes we will, but let us go to the command room first," Mitsuru said as she closed her book.

Moments later, we all ended up at the command room thingo. It was the door that I saw earlier that was locked. Now I know why! A mystery there solved.

"This place is pretty darned swish," I commented, finding Akihiko up in the command room, shadow boxing vigorously and Ikutsuki.

"Hey," he said, stopping mid-punch and throwing a glance at us before sitting down on a couch.

"Hey yourself," I nodded back as everyone else sat down.

"You aren't going to sit?" Ikutsuki asked. He was already ticking me off.

"I don't feel like sitting," I shrugged. "So, what are we going to talk about today?" I sound like a teacher, all stern like that. I should be less stern. Seriousness is not my style.

"To begin… you seem to already know about the Dark Hour," Mitsuru said, looking to me and Hamuko, obviously expecting an answer. Also lolwut, _Dark Hour_?

"Um… that's the time when everything goes green and electronics are shut off, right?" Hamuko asked, tilting her head curiously. Oh. AH. Dark Hour. Or should I say DH because that's what they're calling it?

"Correct," Mitsuru nodded. "Did you not already know about it?"

"We had a different name for it so we didn't recognise it," I laughed. "It's the AH, because that hour is pretty awful. At least, Hamuko and I thought it was pretty awful at first. You get used to it after a long while.

"That name… You didn't have anything better to name it?" Akihiko asked with a raised eyebrow and a quivering lip. I think he was trying not to laugh.

"We suck at naming things," Hamuko rubbed the back of her head with a little giggle. "Dark Hour sounds better though."

"…So, how long have you two been active in the Dark Hour?" Yukari asked.

"About a decade," I answered nonchalantly.

"What?" she said incredulously. I looked between Akihiko and Mitsuru and they seemed to share a strange, melancholy expression. However, Ikutsuki seemed to have something of a smirk on. It was… unnerving.

"Yeah, it's been pretty long, and we already know about them Shadows," I explained. "We've been fighting them for a long time, getting strong."

"Yup, we had to be otherwise we probably wouldn't be here," Hamuko laughed a little.

"…so you already know about the power of Persona as well," Mitsuru concluded quietly, gazing at me with enigmatic eyes. I felt like they were hiding something. I could leave that to a later time though. It's not exactly important unless it starts messing things up too. But I wonder why she said that? I already told her.

"Yeah. Is that why you have them weird, silver gun things?" Hamuko asked.

"Yes. We cannot summon our Personas at just any time. We noticed before that your summoning was quite natural, and the usage of your spells was especially fluid," Mitsuru said, eyeing the both of us.

"But it was mostly him doing all the work!" Hamuko pouted.

"Calm down girl. Yeah, Persona, Dark Hour, Shadows, altogether they kinda ruined our lives!" I laughed. I looked over anyone, especially Mitsuru. She seemed to be looking down at the ground with sadness… I wonder why? It was yet another thing to add to my ever growing list of things that I need to ask about.

"Should I write them down?' Nyx asked jokingly.

"If you want to," I mumbled.

"So… there must be some other reason that you wanted to meet with us right?" Hamuko said, perceptive as ever.

"That is right," Ikutsuki said. Argh, his voice grates on my nerves. Turn out to be evil already, why don't you? His SP speaks to me like that. "You see, we've gathered the Persona users that we know of and gathered them here to fight against Shadow threats. We are the Specialised Extracurricular Execution Squad, or SEES for short."

Hah, and they said that our name for the Dark Hour was awful. Wow, I just seem not to be able to get away from that word. "You want us to join you," Hamuko concluded.

"Yes," Mitsuru nodded slowly, placing a metal briefcase on the table, clicking it open to reveal two of those silver guns, a pair of red sashes and two holsters, presumably to hold the guns in. "I don't believe that you will need these if you want to join… but this is merely a formality. And of course, we would never force you to join either."

Yukari seemed to give a dirty look to Mitsuru, but it passed as soon as it came. "Eh, why not?" Hamuko asked, nudging my leg.

"I have the same sentiments," I shrugged. "I just wanna keep my room here to be honest."

"Are you sure?" Yukari asked with a seemingly worried face. "You don't have to."

"I'm cool with it," I nodded. "Hamuko's given her okay as well."

"Yeah, don't worry Yukari-chan! Besides, I wanna stay here. I mean like, if you're giving us a permanent room here and all," Hamuko laughed.

"Of course. Would you rather just staying in the rooms that you're in right now?" Ikutsuki asked.

"Yeah, that's fine. I don't really wanna move at all," I shrugged. Man, love being lazy.

"Alright then," Mitsuru nodded. Not soon after that, everyone left the command room, presumably to get some rest.

"Yo, aren't ya gonna sleep?" I asked Mitsuru, seeing as she wasn't leaving the room and was actually staying to work some stuff out on the big monitor computer thingy.

"Not at the moment," she replied.

"Why not?" I asked, standing behind the computer chair that she was sitting in.

"I have things to go over," Mitsuru replied simply.

… "Um. I see," I rubbed the back of my head, not exactly sure how I could continue talking to her. "Say, you looked kinda down during the meeting shenanigans, was something up?"

The redhead sighed before pulling her hair towards her back. "Not at all," she lied. I could somehow tell from her voice. It was shaking…

"…you're lying," I noted, and she turned to me with a barely incredulous look. I believed that she was trying to hide her surprise. "'ey, wait. You don't need to tell me or anything."

"Then what is it?" Mitsuru asked.

"I dunno. I like seeing ya you know, having some semblance of a smile on yo face? Keep that frown up and you might get wrinkles yo," I chuckled.

"I appreciate your concern bu-"

I laughed a little more and stole a kiss from her cheek. "Chin up princess," I joked before promptly running out the door.

"Arisato!"

Hehehehe. Poor sod was blushing.

"Could you not think of any other way?" Nyx asked.

"Hey, it was fun," I retorted.

* * *

**AN: Sorry I took a while, but I didn't know where to go after the flashback sequence. And no, Minato is just poking at Mitsuru because he's good at that. He could poke at Yukari too… and Fuuka… and Chihiro… and Yuko… *rambles***

**Plz box me yo thoughts and imma see ya guys later.**

**Nights (2, 3): Yes, badass he is. And CD, because that's exciting.**  
** Haha, well, I like MitsuNato so I thought it would be funny. Lol no.**  
** Indeed. He did.**  
** Thanks!**

**A Fool: Haha, thanks.**  
** The use of POVs? Everything is from Minato's perspective though. Unless you mean scene changes… and in that case I'd have to say that unfortunately the line breaks that FF has are really, really iffy.**  
** Actually… that isn't my goal. I DID want to make it more light-hearted most of the time, but it isn't going to last.**  
** I'll do my best.**

**Yoshikunitsu: A lot of things.**  
** Yes. And there'll be MiNyx later on in the story. As always with pairings, you have to take it slowly, otherwise it won't make sense.**  
** Haha, I will.**

**Zombie: Haha, thanks? I'll try…**

**Richard: I'm poking what?**  
** Never will I write something like that.**  
** Riiiight.**  
** That's the point.**  
** Comic relief.**  
** Uhuh.**


	5. Breaking Walls

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

"What the fuck are you screaming about woman!? It's just a black spot on the-" I reached to poke the black spot on the wall. "Oh, it's Shadowy remnants. Ichor." Must suppress great urges to lick it. Promptly sticks finger in mouth when no-one is looking. Processes. Swallows. Huh. Tastes like human blood. I am now a vampire and Ichor is my sustenance.

Junpei blinked as he stopped screaming. "Holy shit!" he yelled.

"Grab a hold of yourself woman! Are you a pussy, or are you a man!?" I demanded, shaking him back and forth for several moments before setting the capped junior down.

"I… I am a man. I am a dude! I am a hunky dude! I'm a badass hu-" Junpei started.

"Now stop before you quote copyrighted shit," I deadpanned at Junpei, stopping him. "We are not in a typical high school movie that is actually a modern representation of the Twelfth Night. Actually that movie was pretty goo-"

"What do you mean we aren't? You can't deny that we aren't in a modern high school movie of some sort," Hamuko said.

"Guys! Stop trying to break the non-existent fourth wall," Yukari sighed.

"What's the fourth wall?" Akihiko asked.

Silence fell. "Well, never mind. Let's keep moving guys. I like taking my time, but we gotta do what our great leader said," I chuckled. "Come on," I beckoned the rest of the team to come along.

"What are you implying Minato-san?" Mitsuru asked.

"What, you mean you aren't going to take the compliment?" I laughed. "In any case. There is a Shadow horde over there and I would like you guys to go and take it down. Capiche?"

"Wait, who's fighting?" Yukari asked, trying to keep her cool. And failing. I've learned. She's not a very calm person. Calmer than Junpei at least, but… I dunno. From what I've been seeing, she doesn't seem to be the kind of person to adapt to things easily. Kind of ironic, seeing as she's the Lovers. Yea, there goes my arbitrary knowledge of the arcane arts and shit.

"You, you, you and… yeah, just you guys," I said, pointing to Akihiko, Junpei and her.

"Alright," Akihiko nodded. Junpei grinned confidently, despite his little freak out from earlier. And Yukari was still nervous. Actually, I think Junpei's trying to hide his anxiety. He's doing quite a job. I only saw that the second time that I looked at him. Well. Time to reassure the—

"Dun worry guys! We'll jump in if things get hairy. Besides, these guys are low levelled. You can take them down easy," Hamuko said. "Well, ya know. As easy as Shadows can get."

She stole my job. Better leader than I.

"Um, okay, if you say so," Yukari said, biting her lip.

I breathed out, pacing my way over to Yukari. "Do ya think you can shoot 'em?" I asked. The Shadowy blob a few feet away was moving around idly, slithering slowly on the checked floor.

"Um… I can try," Yukari said shakily. I laughed a little at that and placed my hands on her shoulders.

"Don't try. Do. This is just like target practice. You don't get it, bad luck. Junpei can slash it. But for now, while we're here…" I felt her shoulders tense under my grip. "It's just target practice. Just go for it. See what happens."

Yukari gave me a wide-eyed look, before nodding stiffly. Somehow, I knew she could do it. She quietly pulled back her drawstring, knocking an arrow as the twang of the tough wire creaked. "Junpei, wait," I commanded, "Akihiko, do the same."

"Huh?" Junpei raised an eyebrow.

"Unlike you, some of us don't have all of our confidence," I snapped. Yukari smiled apologetically at me before letting fly her arrow straight at the Shadow.

…

Ughhh, who woke me up? I opened my eyes up to see… "Oh hey there beautiful," I grinned, promptly earning myself a glare from Mitsuru.

"…Arisato, meet the new member of SEES," she… she commanded. Okay. I got up quickly, but before Mitsuru could even leave I swept her off her feet before running over the railings and leaping over them, landing on my feet.

"Arisato…" So fast, she couldn't even protest to what I just did, and when I put her down she gave me the iciest glare that I had seen from her yet. Cue the wolf fucking whistle. "You could've gotten the both of us seriously hurt!" she exclaimed.

"Ah, but we didn't," I laughed. She opened her mouth to say more, but I just continued. "And if it's me, we'll never get hurt," I reassured.

"I should execute you…" she muttered.

"I'm wide open over here miss," I pretended to be meek, but that just seemed to set her off even more. Ah, she's fun to mess with. Mitsuru growled quietly before shaking her head.

"You are insufferable," Mitsuru sighed.

"Love birds, you're being watched!" Hamuko announced.

"Oh hey Hamuko. So Junpei, you're the new member are you?" I asked, promptly ignoring Hamuko's quip, walking over slowly and watching his gaze.

"Minato-senpai! And yeah, I am!" he grinned.

…I stared at Junpei until it seemed things were getting awkward. Staaaare. "Uh why are you looking at him like that?" Akihiko cut in.

"Because. Why the fuck not?" I raised an eyebrow, taking my gaze off Junpei and closing my eyes.

"You're weird…" I heard Akihiko mutter. You don't know the half of it.

"Uh…" Junpei did seem put off by my awkwardness. Exactly my goal!

"Junpei my man, welcome to the team!" I swung my arm around his neck. Man, I love being taller than a majority of people. It doesn't seem so strange when a tall person does it to a person that's shorter.

"Uwah! T-Thanks senpai!" he said.

"Well, I think we have enough members to start exploring _that place_," Akihiko said almost ominously. Nce It was almost ominous. I doubt it's ominous.

"That place would be, senpai?" Hamuko asked curiously.

"Now that we have enough members we're going to go and explore a place called Tartarus," he explained. Sounded like toothpaste, but…

"Oh Minato. That's my home," I heard Nyx say. Hey wait, wasn't she quiet all this time? Weird.

"What's that? Sounds like toothpaste," Junpei said, leaving my unsaid thoughts out in the open. Great job! He realised it.

"…You haven't seen it Junpei?" Yukari asked.

"What?" he raised an eyebrow.

"I dunno either," I said. "Is it that weird glowy thing in the distance?"

"Minato, there are a lot of weird glowy things in the distance," Hamuko deadpanned at me. "This is Dark Hour related, right?"

"Yeah. It's a huge tower that only appears in the Dark Hour. Mitsuru and I are thinking that if we could explore it, we could find some answers to its existence and the purposes of Shadows," Akihiko said. "Think of it as a Shadow nest… it sounds like the perfect place for training, huh?"

"I got enough training on my end to last a lifetime," I mumbled in annoyance.

"Are you bitter about it?" Nyx asked curiously.

"Nope, not at all," I grinned.

"Akihiko, you just got hurt the other day," Mitsuru cut in with a glare to the boxer, instantly making him shrivel up under her scrutiny. His weakness is ice.

"B-But I'm healed now," Akihiko said. He sounded almost like a little kid then. I could see Hamuko laughing at his ire.

Nevertheless, Mitsuru was not amused. Not that I expected her to be. "It wouldn't be good if you got hurt again," she said darkly, and Akihiko seemed to just… die. He was Frozen. Take that whatever way you wish.

"What, she's gonna try and screw your balls up?" Hamuko asked. Akihiko immediately paled and ran up the stairs. Well, that was awkward. "Wait Akihiko I love you!" Hamuko gasped and ran after him.

Cue the pall of silence. "That was exciting!" I exclaimed. "I think she was referencing something to be honest, I doubt she meant that."

"Pretty obvious asshole!" Hamuko yelled back. How did she hear me? Of course. I was screaming like a maniac, that's why.

"So Junpei, how does it feel to be on the team? Yukari, how does it feel to have Junpei on the team?" I asked with an amicable smile, pulling Yukari's neck into the crook of my arm, kinda like Junpei.

"Aweso-ying," Junpei and Yukari said.

"Great! We'll get along swimmingly. Junpei, you're weak to Wind and Yukari's weak to Electricity. And I am the motherfucking invincible badass of the team," I declared.

"Huh?" they said in unison.

"But seriously, be careful not getting hurt. If what Akihiko said about the place being a Shadow nest was true then you guys are going to have to fight some! Won't that be fun?" I grinned.

…

The arrow landed square between the Shadow's red vision, and it let out a battle cry of sorts. Kinda like 'shhshhshshaaaaaaaakaaaaaargh' but how should I know what it was saying? It sounded crazy. "Great job Yukari," I winked and gave her a thumbs up before commanding everyone to surround the group of Shadows.

"Uh thanks Minato-kun," she nodded, joining with the others.

I was just about to command people to attack, but Mitsuru's voice popped up in my head through the communicator. "Wassup my man?" I asked, telling everyone to halt. And people did. Surprisingly. Is it my overwhelming courage and charm? WHY ARE PEOPLE STILL FOLLOWING ME? I'm not leader material, I'm moral support!

"Erhem. Once you've engaged in battle, I am able to scan the Shadows and tell you of their weaknesses and skills. My scanning skills are not all that potent, but I can also record any weaknesses that you find from Shadows," Mitsuru explained succinctly. I think it was mostly to me.

"Coolio. Junpei, fire 'em," I commanded. "Show me whatchu you got!" I grinned, gesturing pointing his Evoker to his head and shooting it.

"Uh right!" Junpei nodded, pointing his Evoker to his temple. He took a few deep breaths, in and out. Of course that would make 'em nervous. Give 'em some time. "Persona!" he shouted. Blue glass flew from the other side of his skull and spewed the same colour mist. It swirled into the form of a knight-like figure with shiny metal blade-like wings attached to his hands and feet. Hermes.

…

Whew. Your home's complicated Nyx-chan. Rising pillars, towers all lopsided and just plain not making sense, erupted from the area that school occupied. It was big, majestic, and cool. And it was glowing too. I liked it.

"This is the labyrinth that we know as Tartarus," Mitsuru said.

"Looks complicated. Why's our school of all places Greek hell?" I asked, tilting my head at the… entrancing, high-rise tower. It was basically a skyscraper, and it pierced right into the mouldy moon. I felt something rising from within me; something that made the place seemed so oddly… familiar. I felt like I was home. I am home. I breathed in and out, trying to comprehend the overwhelming sense.

"I don't know…" Mitsuru said, trailing off. That brought me back to the situation, and it brought my attention to the fact that Yukari was shooting dirty looks at Mitsuru. I don't think Yukari likes her, that's for sure.

"Hopefully, we'll be able to find out here," Akihiko said, beckoning us into the tower through a small entrance. "Let's go."

Once we entered the lobby—Wait. It's a lobby? I breathed in.

Cold. Cold… I liked it. A cold grandeur graced the floors, and whirled, spinning all around the pillars, to the golden clock of an entrance, the crystal stairs, the checked floor, the whimsical outside of stairs and floors, the laden door standing conspicuously in the corner as if it waited to be noticed, and to the ceiling that poured down golden light that glistened and brought brightness to such a dark sounding place. Goddammit it looked beautiful.

"You think so?" Nyx inquired, and I could almost feel her presence ghosting over my shoulders. That seemed to make everything even better. I don't know how…

"You live here," I mumbled.

"Indeed," Nyx agreed, turning me ever so slowly towards the team.

"Lucky," I chuckled, idly listening to the explanations from Akihiko and Mitsuru.

"So you weren't planning on going with us in the first place," Yukari concluded.

"Don't worry. I'll be providing support from here. The structure of Tartarus seems changes daily, so support is imperative," Mitsuru said with a small smile. "Akihiko will be accompanying you, seeing as his arm is healed."

"Yeah. But first we need a leader to make any necessary decisions," Akihiko said, eyeing each of the juniors, me and Hamuko.

"Ooh, me, pick me!" Junpei said excitedly.

Akihiko grimaced at that. Yukari was inexperienced. Then there was Hamuko and I. "Which of you two want to lead?" he asked.

I raised an eyebrow at Hamuko, who just stared me back.

…she didn't want to be leader. She had a look that basically said that if I wasn't leader, she would kill me. I could believe her on that to be honest. "He's doing it!" Hamuko pointed at me promptly before I could even say anything. Quick sister.

I facepalmed. "Why him? He doesn't look like a leader," Junpei said. I was busy trying not to register his anger.

"He can summon Personae," Yukari said. "He beat up this huge Shadow a few nights ago."

"Seriously?" Junpei said wide-eyed.

…I turned my gaze to Junpei's and stared him down. "Me and my bro've been doing Shadow killing for a long while, so we have experience over y'all. But I ain't gonna be leader," Hamuko said, patting me on the back. I have no idea why she wants me to be leader to be honest.

Junpei seemed to open his mouth to protest once more, but he shut up. "I tolerate a hella lot of things and shit from other people. But. If you're going to go against Hamuko you're dead," I snarled, leaving a small cut on his throat with an invisible Brave Blade attack. It looked like I was holding a sword, but you couldn't see it.

Gulp.

"Mess with me all you want. But you ain't messing with Hamuko," I declared, earning myself a soft look from my sis. I blinked at her, and I ran my hands through my hair in annoyance. Fucking over-protective still.

…

"Agi!" he commanded. Hermes above him arched his wings and a burst of fire exploded in the Shadows' direction. The amber flames consumed one of the Mayas, throwing sparks in the other two's direction.

"Nice job summoning!" I gave him a thumbs up, and he grinned back.

"Yukari, try summoning," I urged, patting her on the back. She stared wide-eyed at me. "I know you can do it," I smiled.

"U-Uh… I can't!" she squeaked.

I took a soft grip on her shoulders, trying to calm her down and ease her taut muscles. "You'll do fine," I reassured. "I promise, if you believe you can do it, and I know you can… you can do it."

Yukari was slightly flushed, probably from that contact, but she nodded back anyways. "Right…" she breathed in and out, trying to calm herself down. She grasped her Evoker to her forehead. "Persona…"

Bang.

Again, blue glass and mist formed. It swirled around, forming a bull's head with a girl chained to its horns. Io. "G-Garu!" she shouted, however shakily. I smiled at that. Green blades of wind shot towards one of the remaining Shadows, slicing it to bits before it had time to react. Akihiko stomped down on the last, kicking it to the side with his shoe.

"What a stunning victory!" Mitsuru exclaimed.

Whew. Why am I leader again?

Some few minutes later, we were all fighting Shadows, levelling the rookies up some and collecting strange items from the wayward treasure chests scattered around in the alcoves and dead ends. Found surprising stuff in them, including one gold chest. Totally opened that up, and I found this sweet looking katana that Junpei could use. I gave it to him. The rest contained useful stuff like yen, morsels and medicine. It was nice. That money is giving me incentive to come back later, I swear.

… Chink.

Metal scraped along the floor.

"You have to get out of there now! Find the access point and teleport down to the lobby now!" Mitsuru exclaimed.

Huh, that was a pretty big SP signature though. But I gotta do what Mitsuru says. "Come on," I beckoned, staunchly ignoring the looming feeling of death and shit behind me. "We ain't got all hour," I sighed.

Hamuko and I herded everyone to the access point, and we disappeared through the green pad thing. Felt kinda trippy to be honest. But before going, Hamuko and I looked back to see what Mitsuru was so afraid of.

There was a figure in black robes, holding these huge revolvers. Out of the hood that obscured its face I could see one solitary, yellowed eye. Huh. Looks cool.

But we jumped into the teleporter thing anyways.

* * *

**AN: Man, breaking the fourth wall was fun. Hehe. I tried to make this chapter interesting with the first foray into Tartarus. The aftermath of it all will be told in the next chapter, and hopefully some more stuff will happen. Sorry I haven't really been updating this story, and I love it to death now actually, but I just haven't had the inspiration to get it started until now.**

**Plz box me yo thoughts and imma see ya guys later!**

**Yoshikunitsu: Oh you have no idea. I love his personality to death here. Indeed! *dances***  
** Thanks, it's kinda difficult to be honest. Of course, Minato will do those things later.**  
** Yeah, they will! Hopefully I'll have the patience to go through it, but it'll be fun.**  
** I'll do my best my friend!**

**Nights: Thanks! I try! Yes, there'll be more shenanigans later! Sure will. :D**

**Zombie: I deliver my friend.**

**Guest: Yeah. They are starting off at a considerably blank slate, so no hate. Heehee. That'll be fun, especially now that you've reminded me.**


	6. Hell Diving

Being the last ones out, Hamuko and I gave a smile to each other when we saw that everyone in the team was alright. It seemed like everyone else was happy about that too. "You guys're all okay, right?" Hamuko asked.

"Oh yeah, we're okay, Hamuko-chan," Yukari answered, still a bit shaky from what we had just encountered. "What about you two?"

"I'm perfectly fine," Hamuko grinned. "He's good too," she said, pointing to me with her thumb.

I nodded at that, my mind still on how big that SP signature was. I feel like I could've taken it fine. But either way, that thing was pretty interesting. "Yup. So, anyone care to explain what that thing was?" I looked at the seniors, Mitsuru especially.

Mitsuru answered, "That monster that you encountered wasn't a normal Shadow. It is exceptionally strong, and we call it the Reaper." Makes sense with that looming presence of constant DEATH going on around it. She looked between Akihiko, Junpei, Yukari, Hamuko and then me. "I'm glad that all of you are safe however. It seems that our first Tartarus exploration went well. How do you feel about it?"

"Oh um… it was alright. I think I could get used to it," Yukari said, glancing at me. With my help I guess. Moral support is pretty awesome, but that's only my self-given role.

"Yeah, let's go again!" Junpei shouted excitedly. He's so chipper about that…

"I think we went pretty well," Akihiko agreed. "But we'll come back here again. I'm sure that some of us are tired, right?" he laughed a bit.

"Now that you mention it…" Junpei mumbled. "I am kinda bushed."

"That's normal. Being in Tartarus when you aren't used to it can make one fatigue easily. It's probably a good thing that we're only here for about an hour." Mitsuru had a small smile on. "It is good however, that you gained some confidence. What about you two, Hamuko-san, Minato-san?"

"It was pretty okay. I don't think it'll be that easy if we keep getting higher up, but overall, I think I could get pretty used to it," Hamuko grinned, giving a V-sign. I have the same sentiments. I mean really. Nothing could stay that easy for long.

I nodded in agreement. Then… "I wanna fight the Reaper, he seems cool!" I exclaimed.

"Minato, why did you say that?" Nyx asked me, for the first time in a while, cutting into my thoughts. I shrugged as everyone gave me bewildered looks and Hamuko kinda just deadpanned at me.

"Hey, I agree with everything else that Hamuko said okay?" I sighed. "How many of you suddenly regret me being leader?"

No-one seemed to have the balls to speak up. Damn.

"…I appreciate your enthusiasm, Minato-san, but perhaps another time," Mitsuru sighed.

"Understandable. But don't you know what that means?" Nup, they're… they're shaking their heads. "It means that really, someday, we're going to get as strong as that Reaper, and we're gonna beat him into oblivion together! Someday, when we're stronger than even that, nothing will stand in our way! And when that time comes, not even something like death, chaos or lies will be able to stop us from finding out what's going on in this tower, and maybe the cause of the Dark Hour. Maybe even the end of it all."

Hamuko looked at me for a few moments before laughing. "Okay, you see, _that_ makes sense! Who's with us?" she grinned at the rest of the team.

"I am! We'll beat that Reaper's ass someday!" Junpei exclaimed.

"Haha, I'd like to try doing that myself," Akihiko smiled a little.

"Maybe we can do that," Yukari agreed, albeit quieter than the rest.

Mitsuru gave me a small smile and impressed eyes before saying, "Yes. I believe that we will be able to do exactly as Minato says." Hey, she left out the honorific! Nice!

"Alrighty then. We better get going then. I ain't looking to get trapped in here, as cool as this place is," I said, making my way towards the exit.

…

I rubbed my eyes as a strange feeling washed over me. It was kinda weird, and magical even. Something about it made me feel calm, and when my eyes finally opened I just saw a whole lot of blue.

"Welcome to the Velvet Room…" I looked around for the man's voice. Who was it? Where was I? The Velvet Room thingy? Pretty much all around, it was blue, there was a clock high above the grating, some cloth and doors, in front a table… Once I finally found the direction which the voice came from, my eyes widened.

"W-Who are you?" I asked, looking him up at down. He weird and almost creepy looking with those eyebrows of his, pointy ears, wide eyes and that… that _nose_! It was so long! What the heck?

The man chuckled before saying," My name is Igor, and I am delighted to make your acquaintance."

"U-Uh… I-I'm…" I stammered. This guy was scary! And my parents… they always said not to talk to strangers…

"Oh Igor. I think our friend is quite intimidated by that long nose of yours," I heard another voice say. It was another guy, but it sounded kinda younger compared to the Igor person. A small blue butterfly landed on the small table.

Igor scowled a little at I think… the butterfly's poke (with ending up in a completely blue room and encountering a creepy man with a really long nose I think I can say that the butterfly was talking at this point) at his nose (haha, a pun kinda!) but just shook his head and turned his gaze back to me. "As you were saying?"

"I-I'm Minato…" I said shakily. "Arisato Minato."

"Nice to meet you, Minato-san," the butterfly said, almost warmly. "My name is Philemon."

Gulp. "Um… okay… where am I?" I asked.

"You are currently in the Velvet Room, a plane that exists between dream and reality. Mind and matter. We've summoned you here within your dreams," Igor said. "It has been a long while since we've had a guest, or perhaps, two…"

That sounded weird… and trippy. Wonder what that really means? Also this place being in my dreams makes a whole lot more sense than this place being on a whole other dimension or something, but I felt like I couldn't comprehend this place fully anyways. But for now I asked, "Two?" I tilted my head.

Philemon chuckled. "Indeed. We'll explain more about that to you at another time," he said. "At the moment, I just wanted to introduce us two. We will introduce to you another two people the next time you come."

"I'm coming back here?" I said with a bewildered tone.

"Of course," Igor said. "Your journey has just begun…"

…

"Say Nyx," I began, looking for any sign of the goddess in my head. Makes soooo much sense, right?

"What is it?" she responded. It almost felt as if she was doing something idly, like picking at her nails or something like that. Did goddesses have nails? …nah, I'm pretty sure they do.

"Like… how much are you looking for when you're looking at the human world and all that?" I asked. "It's not as if I could just go out and point out everything that you need to function in society! I mean, that would take a lot of time and be pretty difficult to say things about them-"

"Minato. Minato," Nyx said quickly, getting my attention. "I know everything that you know, but there are only a few things that I don't understand, because… you don't understand them either," she finished.

…wait, so she can see my thoughts, so she gets most of her information from there. I guess I could kinda live with that. "Things I don't understand?" I raised an eyebrow. Sure there were lots of things that I didn't understand, but I don't know what she means by them.

"Like… why your parents had to die," Nyx murmured. Oh tha—

…I closed my eyes and went to my mindscape.

"What did you say?" I demanded. Nyx stared back at me in bewilderment. But fuck if I cared. "What. Did. You. Fucking. Say?" I snarled. She bit her lip. "Nyx. You obviously know a lot of things. But there are some things that you need to know about me, too."

"Like what?" she mumbled.

"You don't. Mention my parents. Ever." I growled lowly, stalking towards Nyx. She might've been more powerful than I was, but even then there was some fear registered in her eyes, and she was backing away. "Otherwise… I will do my damnedest to kill you if I ever find you for real. I swear on that, and I don't fucking care if you're the goddess of Death and Night."

"I see…" Nyx shook her head.

"I never will open up to explain why I'd hold unbridled hate for the thing that damned the rest of my life. Hamuko's life." I glared, and she seemed to flinch from the killing intent that was leaking into the blackness of my mind. "If it was someone that I knew, I still wouldn't hesitate. And if it was me, I'd be gone in a second."

"What about Hamuko?" Nyx asked.

"It isn't her fault," I snapped. "And… if I ever find the thing that sealed the parts of Death in me and Hamuko, I will do everything to let it know everything I went through to get to this point."

"After that, then what?" she continued.

"I-I… I don't know… Stay with Hamuko…" I muttered. "She's all I have left! Everyone else backstabbed me, even the guys with the contract! I don't trust anyone else."

"Minato…" Nyx mumbled, coming closer. How much courage did she have? "I should tell you something about me then."

"Like what?" I sighed.

"Minato, since my very existence has been awakened… it means that the world is coming to an end," she explained. I silently raised an eyebrow at that. "That being said, it won't happen until somewhere near the end of this year."

"Oh really?" I shook my head and chuckled. "Looks like that fucking butterfly really was just preparing us to go to our deaths…" I could feel Nyx's confused eyes on me. "Goddammit Philemon…!"

I heard Nyx coming closer with her footsteps. I felt her hand on my shoulder, and she squeezed it lightly. "What're you doing?" I shook my head.

"I don't know," Nyx sighed. I slowly turned to face her. "It just felt like I should do that," she continued.

"Only… only Hamuko does that," I murmured. "Then she hugs me," I laughed a little.

"I'm not going to hug you," Nyx deadpanned at me.

"Nah, I kinda figured," I shrugged. "And I…"

"Hm?" Nyx blinked.

"Sorry for snapping at you. I really can't control myself when it comes to talking about that kind of stuff," I rubbed the back of my head. "I still haven't gotten over what happened after all this time," I sighed. "Ten fucking years…"

"It's fine… And you can't really kill me anyways. I'm kind of immortal," she said. Picking at her nails. She really _was_ doing that? Holy shit. That's hilarious!

"Meh. I'd still try. Anyways, I'm going," I said, and she regarded me with what seemed to be a very, very small smile.

"Minato!" I heard Hamuko's voice.

"Wassup?" I asked.

"Like… is it normal to have a deity talking to me in my head!?" Hamuko blinked.

I looked up and down, and searched back for Nyx. "What the hell?" I muttered to her.

"Tartarus?" Nyx shrugged. Okay, I don't know what that means.

"I've been talking to one for longer, what's the guy's name?" I sighed.

"He's Tartarus," Hamuko said.

…oh. Oh. Okay.

* * *

**AN: Argh… this took way long. Wah. A lack of reviews doesn't exactly help one author's case either…**

**Plz box me yo thoughts and imma see ya guys later.**

**Yoshikunitsu: Yeah, it'll be an interesting chapter, whenever it happens. And yes, they do.**  
**Of course, they do. It's already started.**  
**Haha, thanks. It's mostly because I can't remember the scenes in the game that well anymore though.**  
**lololol yeah. I will, and thanks! **

**Nights: Glad you liked it! Yeah, it will later.**  
**Haha, of course she is. And I know you do.**  
**Sure!**

**Gerson: Sure.**


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